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BuckleySandler LLP’s InfoBytes Blog monitors and reports on news, legal developments and legislative actions affecting the financial services industry. With a focus on issues ranging from fair lending to consumer financial services regulation and the CFPB, InfoBytes Blog is a comprehensive and timely source for in-house counsel and industry executives to stay abreast of developments affecting their industry.

The CFPB and the FHFA announced today an agreement to create a National Mortgage Database, the first comprehensive repository of mortgage loan information. The database primarily will be used to support the agencies’ policymaking and research efforts and help regulators better understand emerging mortgage and housing market trends. The database is intended to (i) monitor the health of mortgage markets and consumers, (ii) provide insight on consumer decision making, (iii) monitor new and emerging mortgage products, (iv) consolidate data on first and second lien mortgages for a given borrower, and (v) help policymakers understand consumer debt burden. The press release states that development of the dataset is currently underway and the agencies expect early versions of the full dataset to be complete in 2013. Once completed, the agencies plan to explore opportunities to share database information with other federal agencies, academics, and the public. The database will include information spanning the life of a mortgage loan from origination through servicing and include loan-level data about (i) the borrower’s financial and credit profile, (ii) the mortgage product and terms, (iii) the property purchased or refinanced, and (iv) the ongoing payment history of the loan. The agencies will build the database by matching a nationwide sampling of credit bureau files on borrowers’ mortgages and payment histories with informational files such as the HMDA database and property valuation models. The database will include historical data back to 1998 and will be updated on a monthly basis.